Book Banning Research Paper

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The act of banning books has been in play for most of history. Banning books is wrong for a variety of reasons. Some of those reasons are: the banning of books prevents children and young adults from expanding their minds and also goes against the right of the First Amendment. Children and young adults should have the access to and the freedom to read literature that has been created. Book banning has been a part of history as far back as the time of Socrates. In 399 B.C. he was charged for corrupting the minds of youth. Before the printing press was invented, books were burned to prevent the spread of said literature. However, when the ability to print became available, the book ban began. Some of the earliest examples of this are licensing…show more content…
One major case occurred in 1982; Island Trees School District vs. Pico, the Board of Education found that library material could not be removed by school officials because they disagreed with the ideas behind it. In order to protect students’ rights to express and receive information, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that to have adequate grounds for banning, a book or periodical must be “pervasively vulgar”. Although a few years later, the Supreme Court ruled that student journalists could be censored by school officials. In 1988 Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier stated that the school newspaper was not a form of public expression. This decision granted school officials the ability to censor classroom curriculum as well. Since public libraries are considered an open forum of ideas, most are adverse to banning books since censorship is so touchy. There is even an act that allows the government authority to look into people’s library records, the Patriot Act’s section 215, which has also had negative feedback from library…show more content…
“Censorship based on individual sensitivities and concerns restricts the world of knowledge available to students. And that world could get smaller and smaller. Based on personal views, some parents wish to eliminate material depicting violence; others object to references to sexuality, others to racially-laden speech or images. Some parents oppose having their children exposed to fiction that doesn’t have a happy ending, teach a moral lesson, or provide noble role models. If these and other individual preferences were legitimate criteria for censoring materials used in school, the curriculum would narrow to including only the least controversial and probably least relevant material. It would hardly address students’ real concerns, satisfy their curiosity, or prepare them for life” This quote shows some of the prime examples of what negative effects banning books can have on children and young adults. It basically limits the boundaries of their minds and can prevent them from experiencing important life lessons. While trying to protect children, people are harming them by limiting their exposure to real life issues and occurrences. In my opinion, it is easier to show and explain more difficult things to children and young adults through books. It gives them the freedom to explore and accept issues in their own ways and deal with them in better ways because it is not blindly being forced on them like real

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